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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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NEWS
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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2005
STATE
Counties failed to report meth labs
TOPEKA — Nearly one-third of Kansas counties failed to report the number of meth busts in their communities last year, making the state appear to have fewer labs and possibly affecting federal funding to combat the problem.
Kansas, a perennial fixture among states with the most methamphetamine laboratory seizures, reported 583 busts last year, 11th most in the nation. It's the first time in a decade Kansas hasn't been among the top 10.
But Kansas doesn't require law enforcement agencies to report meth lab seizures, so the state's numbers are based on incomplete data. The Hutchinson News checked with several of the Kansas counties that didn't report meth lab busta and discovered numerous uncounted seizures enough to put Kansas back in the top 10.
Much of the federal grant money used in the battle against meth labs is tied to successfully finding and stopping meth production. A 2001 Legislative Post Audit suggested law enforcement's failure to report meth labs could be costing the state federal funds.
The Associated Press
WORLD
Bush to urge allies to unite for peace
BRUSSELS, Belgium — President Bush sought to repair rocky relations with Europe yesterday, saying "no power on earth will ever divide us." He urged allies to move beyond differences over Iraq in the interest of Mideast peace.
"As past debates fade and great duties become clear, let us begin a new era of trans-Atlantic unity," Bush will say in a speech today. Appealing for aid for Iraq, he urges the world's democracies "to give tangible political, economic and security assistance to the world's newest democracy."
Excerpts of his address were released on his arrival here.
released on his usual host
Hoping to set a more conciliatory tone for his second term, Bush will meet over five days with some of his toughest critics: French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, both of whom fiercely opposed the U.S.-led invasion.
Bush also will see Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has alarmed the West with Moscow's retreat from democracy.
Today's speech, the main address of his trip, is a conciliatory message aimed at citizens across Europe, where Bush is widely disliked.
Clinton, Bush continue aid efforts
Presidents visit Indonesia to offer support BY CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton visited Indonesia's tsunami-ravaaged Aceh province yesterday, flying over a vast wasteland of destruction, the likes of which Bush said he'd never seen.
The two former presidents, who are leading private U.S. tsunami aid efforts, met with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after arriving from Thailand, where they got their first look at the devastation and grief unleashed by the Dec. 26 disaster.
Yudhoyono said he "conveyed to them the gratitude of the Indonesian people for all these donations contributed by friendly nations, by their people, and by their NGOs (nongovernment organizations)."
Bush and Clinton said they came away reassured that Indonesia would channel aid funds in a transparent, effective way.
"Nothing turns private donors off more than if they saw waste, or fraud, or something like that," Bush said. "But we don't anticipate that. We're very reassured by what the president said, that it's essential that not only our observers and our NGOs, that the Indonesians go forward with us and with other donor nations to be sure that it's delivered most effectively, less overhead and certainly no corruption."
The Associated Press
The village had 6,500 inhabitants before the disaster. Only 700 remain.
Bush and Clinton flew in U.S. military helicopters from the provincial capital Banda Aceh over a barren, desert-like landscape that was once a patchwork of rice paddies, to the village of Lampuuk, where the sole structure left standing is a large white mosque.
"I've never seen anything like this in my entire life. Ever," Bush said.
He told local villagers who greeted them that, "You're going to be OK. A lot of people around the world want to help."
Clinton asked a villager, Akhi Sukir, what the survivors needed most. "They need everything." Sukir replied.
"It's almost impossible to
appreciate the scope of this if you haven't physically seen it." Clinton said, adding it would take three to five years to complete the reconstruction effort.
Rahmayadi, who goes by one name, is among thousands of survivors left homeless by the disaster. He said his house in Lampuuk "was around this neighborhood and now it's flattened."
"My children and wife died and I didn't get their bodies, so now it's only me and two sons," said the 53-year-old Rahmayadi, who shook hands with Clinton. "All we ask for now is shelter because we can't live in tents forever. I will keep being patient until someone helps me."
Dita Alanokara/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bush and Clinton later flew on to the USS Fort McHenry, a vessel ferrying supplies, rice, water and clothing to shore.
Former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton waves to journalists as George H.W. Bush looks on before leaving for Aceh province at Polonia Airport in Medan, Indonesia, yesterday.
The United States deployed a carrier battle group and about 20 helicopters for relief operations off Aceh's western coast — its biggest military operation in Southeast Asia since the Vietnam War. Washington has pledged $950 million for relief efforts for tsunami-hit countries.
Bush called on Indonesia to ensure that U.S. aid money was being well spent, said a U.S.
Yudhoyono said that transparency in distributing aid was important and that an anticorruption stance was an important part of his election campaign.
Indonesia is among the world's most corrupt countries, and local anti-corruption watchdogs are already alleging that officials have been siphon-
official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
ing aid meant for Aceh.
ASTRONOMY
Town proud of local who discovered Pluto
BY AMY BICKEL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BURDETT — It has been 75 years since a Kansas farm boy discovered Pluto, but in Clyde Tombaugh's hometown, locals haven't forgotten what the breakthrough meant to their rural Pawnee County community.
On the western edge of Burdett, population 250, a historical marker stands next to the water tower, telling of Tombaugh's discovery.
Amid crop and pasture land north of town is the family farmhouse with the cellar where he made his first telescopes.
And schoolchildren still learn about him, inspiring them to dream.
"I want to be the first girl president," said third-grader Jessie Alnor, who wrote about how the Burdett native has inspired her during class at the town's school, Pawnee Heights Elementary.
For classmate Allison Stejskal, "When I think about him discovering Pluto, then I think that I could be a good veterinarian."
On Feb. 18, 1930, Tombaugh, 24, found the icy ninth planet in the solar system, named after
the Greek god of the underworld. Attention began to focus on the self-taught amateur astronomer hailing from Kansas.
He didn't forget his hometown, however.
"Whether you realize it or not," Tombaugh told reporters at the historical marker dedication ceremony honoring him in town, "Burdett played a very important role in the discovery of Pluto."
Tombaugh was born in 1906 in Streator, Ill., moving with his family to a farm near Burdett in 1922. There, Tombaugh explored the heavens above western Kansas.
His first telescope, from Sears Roebuck and Co., was given to him by his father and uncle. He used it to look at objects in the skv that he read about.
Students at school, however, thought him a little odd, said niece Jeanne Plack, who grew up on the Tombaugh farm north of Burdett.
His peers made fun of his passion for gazing at the sky, even drawing pictures of Tombaugh's telescopes.
sue his dream.
tombaugh, however, studied harder. His parents, Plack's grandparents, Muron and Adella, pushed their son to pur-
"My grandparents really nurtured the success of their children," Plack said. "He always was very interested in astronomy, and when they saw how interested he was, they supported him."
He graduated from Burdett High School in 1925. Tombaugh's family was too poor to send him to college, and he began working on the farm — continuing to stargaze, Plack said.
Wanting a stronger instrument to look at the galaxy, Tombaugh created his own telescopes from hand-ground mirrors and discarded farm equipment.
He convinced his father he needed a cellar to provide the correct temperatures to grind mirrors for his homemade telescopes. And the farm needed a storm shelter. He dug the 8-foot-wide, 7-foot-deep and 24-foot-long cellar with a pick and shovel in the late 1920s, Plack said.
In 1928, Tombaugh completed a 9-inch telescope that allowed him to make meticulous sketches of Jupiter and Mars. Seeking advice from professionals, he sent the sketches to Lowell Observatory in
The observatory offered him a job.
"I was rather unnerved by it all, everybody was strangers, 1,000 miles from home, and not enough money in my wallet for a return ticket home."
Tombaugh's task at the observatory was to spend long hours taking photographs of the sky in search of the mysterious Planet X.
He discovered the planet and much more. Tombaugh photographed 65 percent of the sky and spent 7,000 hours examining 90 million star images. He discovered six star clusters, a cloud of galaxies, a comet and hundreds of asteroids among other finds.
The University of Kansas offered him a full scholarship after the Pluto find.
Eventually, he ended up at New Mexico State University, where he founded the astronomy research program, working there from 1955 to 1973. He continued lecturing after his retirement and gave
speeches to raise money for scholarship funds.
He might have missed Pluto if he had not been so attentive.
He once told a reporter, "Often, you experience hardships, like freezing in that cold dome at night, loss of sleep — and that gets pretty wicked. But I was interested in getting the results. It takes a dedication to achieve that kind of thing. A lot of people would give up and quit."
Back in Burdett, folks still recall meeting him during visits home and his good nature.
"We're pretty proud to have him," said Beverly Steffen, the town librarian.
Plack, who now lives in Minnesota, said she still recalls when he visited the farm, showing her how to operate her small telescope.
"He'd take time to map out things I could see," she said. "I always kind of knew that whatever I wanted to do I could do it."
Children in Burdett still feel that way, said Margaret Miller, the elementary school's third-grade teacher.
"They all know who he is," she said. "And some of them want to discover something or discover another planet."
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